FTA:Tesla's brilliance began to fade into madness in his later years, and though some of his proposed inventions would later provide great material for science fiction, few of them were ever tested empirically.

Regarding the Tesla earthquake machine - years ago, I worked on the 20th floor of a 30 floor building. Opposite my desk was a large filing cabinet and on top of it was a large trophy. I used to bounce my foot and knee up and down and I noticed that the vibration that I set up traveled through the floor, up the cabinet and made the trophy bounce all over the place.

What's up with #7? They want to test a force coming down on the hood but in the video they don't get a single hit except when the car is stationary, so they should keep trying, or find a better way to test it, not make any ruling on its level of plausibility.

sammyk:FTA:Tesla's brilliance began to fade into madness in his later years, and though some of his proposed inventions would later provide great material for science fiction, few of them were ever tested empirically.

Slaxl:What's up with #7? They want to test a force coming down on the hood but in the video they don't get a single hit except when the car is stationary, so they should keep trying, or find a better way to test it, not make any ruling on its level of plausibility.

It was a pretty dumb test, I'm surprised it was put on this list. The NASA ones were good though

Slaxl:What's up with #7? They want to test a force coming down on the hood but in the video they don't get a single hit except when the car is stationary, so they should keep trying, or find a better way to test it, not make any ruling on its level of plausibility.

The B-Team doesn't really perform science so much as find excuses to smash stuff.

sammyk:FTA:Tesla's brilliance began to fade into madness in his later years, and though some of his proposed inventions would later provide great material for science fiction, few of them were ever tested empirically.

God Is My Co-Pirate:sammyk: FTA:Tesla's brilliance began to fade into madness in his later years, and though some of his proposed inventions would later provide great material for science fiction, few of them were ever tested empirically.

Wow...I hope whoever the guy was who wrote that realizes that he is the pot calling the kettle black when it comes to Edison. (That doesn't make him wrong about it.) He should switch to decaf or take his meds a bit more regularly. Or maybe he doesn't realize that Edison is dead.

Slaxl:What's up with #7? They want to test a force coming down on the hood but in the video they don't get a single hit except when the car is stationary, so they should keep trying, or find a better way to test it, not make any ruling on its level of plausibility.

If I recall correctly, they got a successful hit when the vehicle was moving. The vid in TFA is just a compilation of all their misses.

One test that I disagreed with was if the Phantom's ring could leave an imprint in someone's forehead. They stretched pigskin over a skull and had a robot arm punch it at varying strength. It never left an impression and it actually shattered the skull. So to them, myth busted.

However, that doesn't seem right to me. I've seen someone take a line drive off of their knee while playing third and the baseball left the impression of the stitches on his knee with no broken bones. Sure, the ball is softer, but it seems that if a ball can leave an impression, so can a ring.

Gunderson:Speaking of fictional theories, watch "The Boys from Brazil" today. Its seems even more plausible today than when it was filmed. Plus it has Guttenberg.

When that was filmed, we had only cloned stuff like frogs. We hadn't cloned mammals yet, Dolly the sheep was 18 years in the future. We could, assuming access to good DNA, clone a dead person today. So yeah, it *SOUNDS* more plausible to us, but back then it was pure science fiction.

2CountyFairs:One test that I disagreed with was if the Phantom's ring could leave an imprint in someone's forehead. They stretched pigskin over a skull and had a robot arm punch it at varying strength. It never left an impression and it actually shattered the skull. So to them, myth busted.

However, that doesn't seem right to me. I've seen someone take a line drive off of their knee while playing third and the baseball left the impression of the stitches on his knee with no broken bones. Sure, the ball is softer, but it seems that if a ball can leave an impression, so can a ring.

It can. There's this thing called circulation, you see. Dead things don't have it. Living things do. The impression you saw from the baseball stitches for example, are actually made by minute blood vessels which burst and leak. Much like one of those "pin impression" toys, the pattern of the stitches is roughly duplicated by the tiny blood vessels and the ensuing swelling, reddening and leaking. You can't duplicate it on non-living tissue. Someone is going to have to punch Tory in the head. I suggest starting hard and working your way down to gentle.

Balchinian:bungle_jr: LittleSmitty: Some of my favorite episodes are Rocket Car (1st episode?), Escape from Alcatraz, and the one where they cut a car in half with a huge wedge mounted on a rocket sled.

And the one where they caused an entire cement truck to vanish using a bunch of C4.

probably my single favorite moment on mythbusters was that explosion. i love the show, but they even shocked themselves with that explosion

I second that. It was a beautiful thing. It wasn't C4 though, it was dynamite. 850 pounds of dynamite.

right...because the actual myth was cleaning out hardened concrete with a stick of dynamite or something like that...so of course they had to have their big finale. but most times it is c4...jamie's explosive of choice

srtpointman:I always liked their whole idea that if something doesn't work, they'll try to make it work. It's a good show and gets kids excited about science. Hell, I'm 35 and it gets me excited about science.

/SCIENCE!

We should all get excited about science... Then maybe the cake wont be lie. And that we will all drink lots and lots of Neuro toxin.

srtpointman:I always liked their whole idea that if something doesn't work, they'll try to make it work blow stuff up. It's a good show and gets kids excited about science explosions. Hell, I'm 35 and it gets me excited about science blowing stuff up.

Uisce Beatha:Slaxl: What's up with #7? They want to test a force coming down on the hood but in the video they don't get a single hit except when the car is stationary, so they should keep trying, or find a better way to test it, not make any ruling on its level of plausibility.

If I recall correctly, they got a successful hit when the vehicle was moving. The vid in TFA is just a compilation of all their misses.

Linky - yup, they hit it eventually

No they didn't. When they repeat that clip in slow motion they show it from all angles except the side view that you see originally. Slow down that side view and you will see that the block lands directly above the hood of the car.as in the back end of the block is almost at the windshield.

Still, it's better than the way Jamie and Adam declare myths busted because it's a skill based one that they personally can't manage. For instance their test and claim that it was impossible to be accurate with a pistol while firing from the hip

God Is My Co-Pirate:sammyk: FTA:Tesla's brilliance began to fade into madness in his later years, and though some of his proposed inventions would later provide great material for science fiction, few of them were ever tested empirically.

You Are All Sheep:Maybe it's just me, but I liked the metalworking girl that was on before Kari. Kari to me was just the flouncy chick to keep guys watching.

Scottie Chapman. Yeah, I would have liked to see her stay on, she was a great welder, among other things. She probably couldn't handle dealing with the whole Jamie vs. Adam dynamic. I don't blame her, if that was the case.

Balchinian:You Are All Sheep: Maybe it's just me, but I liked the metalworking girl that was on before Kari. Kari to me was just the flouncy chick to keep guys watching.

Scottie Chapman. Yeah, I would have liked to see her stay on, she was a great welder, among other things. She probably couldn't handle dealing with the whole Jamie vs. Adam dynamic. I don't blame her, if that was the case.

Soon after she left the show she said it was basically because she didn't likethe strenuous production schedule. She did leave on good terms, though,which is borne out by the fact that she's been back a couple of times for oneoff projects (most notably the 2nd rocket car experiment when the car turnedinto a huge bomb).

2CountyFairs:One test that I disagreed with was if the Phantom's ring could leave an imprint in someone's forehead. They stretched pigskin over a skull and had a robot arm punch it at varying strength. It never left an impression and it actually shattered the skull. So to them, myth busted.

However, that doesn't seem right to me. I've seen someone take a line drive off of their knee while playing third and the baseball left the impression of the stitches on his knee with no broken bones. Sure, the ball is softer, but it seems that if a ball can leave an impression, so can a ring.

My unscientific observation was that the Phantom ring had the image indented/sunken into the ring. Conversely, a baseball's stitches protrude from the surface. That should make the difference, right?